Identifying and describing your target market is essential to effectively market your company's products or services. A well-defined target market enables you to create better targeted marketing messages designed to appeal to your specific audience. The better you define and describe your target audience, the better you can craft marketing that appeals to the audience's characteristics and lifestyle, which makes them more likely to become customers.

Determine the basic demographic information for your target market. Pinpoint what categories of people are most likely to buy your product based on the following criteria: age, gender, income level, marital status, family size, occupation and ethnic background.

Determine the psychographic information for your target market. Itemize what personality traits, interests or hobbies your audience has. When determining these characteristics, remember that your product or service should fit seamlessly into your target's lifestyle.

Itemize the benefits of all your products or services. Determine the needs that your product or service fulfills. Use this information to develop a list of needs and wants your target audience has.

Survey your existing customer base or research the customers of your competition to develop insight into how your audience finds out about products or services similar to yours and what motivates purchase decisions. Use information from research companies such as Pew or Scarborough to gain insight into additional characteristics of your target.

Compile a cohesive customer profile of your target audience, which should clearly describe demographic and psychographic data and information on what motivates or influences buying behavior in your targeted segment.

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About the Author

Tivi Jones has been writing and editing since 2006. She has worked with print and digital magazine publishers such as Bauer Publishings and book publishers like Sourcebooks, Inc. Jones holds a bachelor's degree in journalism and entrepreneurship from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and has been in the marketing and business development consulting field for more than nine years.